There was Galian, perhaps the eldest member of Bitten. In his youth he had been a soldier in the old Nansur Army; he had even fought in the famed Battle of Kiyuth, where Ikurei Conphas, the last of the Nansur Emperors, had overcome the nomadic Scylvendi. The giant that Soma had earlier called Ox was Oxwora, a renegade son of the famed Yalgrota, one of the heroes of the First Holy War. There was Xonghis, a Jekki hillman who had been a former Imperial Tracker. He, Soma explained, was the Captain’s “peach,” by which he meant his most prized possession. “If he gets a chill,” the Nilnameshi caste-noble said, “you must surrender your cloak and rub his feet!” The other giant of the group was Pokwas, or Pox as he was called. According to Somandutta, he was a disgraced Zeümi Sword-Dancer, come to eke out a living among the unwashed barbarians of the Three Seas. “It’s always Zeüm this or Zeüm that with him,” the Nilnameshi explained with mock disgust. “Zeüm invented children. Zeüm invented wind …” There was Sutadra, or Soot, whom Achamian had already identified as Kianene because of his goatee and long moustaches. Apparently Soot refused to speak of his past, which meant, Soma said with exaggerated menace, he was a fugitive of some description. “Likely a Fanim heretic.” And lastly, there was Moraubon, a rangy Galeoth who had once been a Shrial Priest, “until he discovered that peaches don’t grow on prayers.” Apparently the question of whether he was “half-skinny” was a matter of ongoing debate.

“He hunts,” Pox explained, his grin as broad as his black face, “with both bows strung.”

Collectively, the seven of them were the only remaining members of the original company first assembled by Lord Kosoter some ten years previous. They called themselves the Bitten because they had been “gnawed” for so many long slogs. As it so happened, each and every one of them had been literally bitten by Sranc as well—and sported the scars to prove it. Pox even stood and dropped his leggings to reveal a puckered crescent across his left cheek, among other things.

“Sweet Sejenus,” Galian exclaimed. “That solves the mystery of Soma’s missing beard!”

Raucous laughter.

“Was that where it was hiding?” Achamian asked as innocently as a crafty old man could manage.

The Bitten fell dead silent. For a moment all he could hear was the talk and laughter from the other campfires echoing through the sieve of the surrounding forest. He had taken that step, so fateful in the company of close-knit strangers, between watching and participating.

“Where what was hiding?” Xonghis asked.

“The skinny that bit him.”

Somandutta was the first to howl. Then all the Bitten joined in, rocking on their mats, trading looks like sips of priceless wine, or simply rolling their eyes heavenward, shining beneath the eternal arches of the night.